excogitate

American  

[eks-koj-i-teyt] / ɛksˈkɒdʒ ɪˌteɪt /

verb (used with object)

excogitated, excogitating

1. to think out; devise; invent.

2. to study intently and carefully in order to grasp or comprehend fully.

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excogitate British  

/ ɛksˈkɒdʒɪˌteɪt /

verb

1. to devise, invent, or contrive

2. to think out in detail

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Other Word Forms

• excogitable adjective
• excogitation noun
• excogitative adjective
• excogitator noun
• unexcogitated adjective
• unexcogitative adjective

Etymology

Origin of excogitate

First recorded in 1520–30; from Latin excōgitātus, past participle of excōgitāre “to devise, invent, think out”; see ex- ¹, cogitate

Example Sentences

Yet cause must be assigned, and the best form of words he could excogitate ran thus: 'Family circumstances render it desirable—almost necessary—that I should spend the next twelve months in London.

From Born in Exile by Gissing, George

Bein’ hot I lay down in the lee of a bush to excogitate.

From Black Ivory by Pearson, Francis B.

Yet even Varchi shares the prevailing conviction that the proper method is first to excogitate a perfect political system, and then to impress that like a stamp upon the material of the commonwealth.

From Renaissance in Italy, Volume 1 (of 7) The Age of the Despots by Symonds, John Addington

The following series of possibilities are curiously interesting, both from their partial subsequent realization, and from the simple credulity with which Bacon gives us that which he had known "a wise man explicitly excogitate."

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 368, June 1846 by Various

And to speak generally, in regard of things celestial he set his face against attempts to excogitate the machinery by which the divine power formed its several operations.

From The Memorabilia by Dakyns, Henry Graham